AN: Wow, it's been a while. Sorry it took me so long to get back to this story, but I wanted to make sure the output would be of good quality. Not much going on in terms of action here, but hope it gets you guys excited to meet our dear Soviet Eishis! We'll be seeing a lot of Akane too from here on.

Also, thanks to all the new followers and reviewers! Muv-Luv is a really slow and sedate fandom, so I wasn't expecting much but I really appreciate the support, and hope you enjoy the ride.

Reviewer pihip: I used the 'Eberbach' expression with the assumption that an account of his life and performance would have survived and been proliferated, since according to the anime (spoilers) some of the 666th survived. But I can see where you're coming from, may decided to change that up in future.

Without further ado, let's get to the chapter!

Chapter 4: Preludio

Meeting Room C on Level B2, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky Base, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

6th January 2002, Night

'Touko-san~'

'Aaahh! Misae, stop!'

Akane yawned as she sat sprawled in her seat in the meeting room, her hands tracing invisible patterns on the table. Where had the rest of the day gone? After Maksim left they'd spent the rest of the day unpacking their belongings.

She'd given some thought to what had happened in the HSST on the way here. That was ridiculous, she decided. I can't be that weak anymore. Haruka won't be around to comfort me when I'm in trouble, and I was the one who signed up for this secret squadron that no one outside of the top tier of the UN knows about.

She knew from the water that had been on her neck in the HSST that Munakata wasn't having it easy either. She'd suddenly been promoted from nothing to the leader of the whole of A-01. After Isumi died, Hayase died, and then almost the entire squad died. They had almost no combat potential now, and hadn't been able to die with their friends when they'd gone into Kashgar alone. Akane was still nothing, but she could, and should do her best to ease the burden on her comrades too. How do you all keep this up? She wondered, looking at Kazama and Munakata who were at it again, talking quietly at another corner of the table as usual. Smiling, laughing, giggling. Even you, Asakura, snoozing so soundly. You have each other. You've always had each other. I have no one now. What do I do then?

Well, Hayase didn't have anyone either, Akane realized with a jolt. Hayase was alone from the start, and she didn't buckle or break. She was, and is a true hero. Storm Vanguard One. First in, last out. In fact, at Yokohama Base she hadn't come back out.

I won't be able to face you in Valhalla when we meet, Hayase-senpai, Akane thought sadly. Not if I remain like this. I won't be able to face anyone.

That settled it then. She'd had a few weeks of rest and recovery where she'd been banned from doing anything. But now she no longer had that excuse. A warm tingle of fresh resolve ran through her as Akane swore an oath in her mind. She wouldn't let anyone down again. She wouldn't be weak. Once we get back home, I will give it my all like I've never done before. No one else is going to die! She stood up from her seat, and opened her mouth to speak.

'Everyone, I-'

The door opened.

Slowly, all of them stood up, chairs screeching, and faced the entrance to the room. What? What's she doing here? Where's the Professor? Whoa…

'Attention!' A woman with green hair, clad in a red uniform of the Imperial Royal Guard shouted at the stunned occupants of the room. 'Salute and bow, for the Grand Shogun of the Japanese Empire, Her Royal Highness Koubuin Yuuhi!'

Huh? Mitsurugi-san? What?! Akane and her squad followed the motions mechanically, lining up in a stunned, disoriented line and bowing as low as their backs would allow.

'At ease,' said "Mitsurugi", waving a hand towards them. 'Tsukuyomi, I wish to speak with them privately.'

'Your Highness, will you be alone with these foreign troops?'

'They may wear UN uniforms, but I know they are Japanese people at heart. They bear me no ill will.'

'But of course.' The guard, Tsukuyomi, bowed to her charge. She raked them all with a stern glare, then backed out the door, closing it as she went.

A-01 looked at each other tensely with their eyes, all of them unsure as to how to act in the presence of such authority. Koubuin Yuuhi, bearer of the rank second only to the Emperor of Japan, looked them over as well. A specially-tailored, form fitting purple uniform with red accents covered her frame. If one were to be so impertinent, it would not be hard to mistake her for a common servant or attendant, were it not for the glittering insignia on her shoulders, and the radiant, gold headdress she wore which imitated the image of a blazing sun, borne between two metallic arms. Akane scanned her memory for the lessons she had no doubt received in her childhood on how to act when confronted with a member of royalty, but sadly came up bare. Years away from home in the UN Army had removed any vestige of memory that remained. She and the others settled for standing at attention, as they were wont to do in the presence of any superior officer.

'Greetings to you all,' the Shogun said, as she stepped forward towards the table in the room, cutting a majestic figure despite being clad in non-ceremonial garb. 'Please, be seated. I am sorry if my presence causes you any pain.' Looking around them, her serene smile did not waver. 'I am fully aware of who I look like. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say I am aware of who once bore resemblance to me. I am sorry for your loss.' She bowed herself now, and all of them scrambled to lower their heads more than she had done.

'T-Thank you, your Highness.' Munakata started shakily, but eventually regained her natural charisma and met the Shogun with a calm, even tone. 'We are touched by your kindness. However, we are soldiers after all, and will continue doing our duty to humanity, no matter the cost. Countless other nations await their liberation.'

The Shogun laughed lightly. 'It soothes me greatly to see powerful hearts such as yours, brimming with such spirit. Indeed, humanity has come a long way, and it enlivens one to see that our resolve is strong as ever.

'Which is why it pains me so much to have to deliver to you more bad news.'

Akane held her breath.

'The Security Council has mandated that Professor Kouzuki be housed here in the UN Base in complete isolation, while she and other Japanese personnel work on the decoding of the data from the 00 Unit. She is to have no contact with outsiders to ensure impartiality, and no access to any armed personnel.' The Shogun looked them all in the eye. 'This includes you.'

It took a moment before Akane managed to decipher the implications of the Shogun's words, and fury ran through her. Those Russians and their little games. This woman saved you, and you're throwing her into prison? She seethed. Maksim wasn't kidding around then. Is this who the world was saved for?

'Your residence in this base is only guaranteed by my presence,' the Shogun continued. 'The Russians and Americans both tried their best to isolate Doctor Kouzuki. As of tomorrow, you'll be temporarily under the command of Tsukuyomi, my personal Guard outside. Yashiro Kasumi will be with you as well.'

Akane suddenly noticed that Yashiro had quietly joined them beside her, rabbit ears and all. She noticed that the patch on her right arm with the Soviet Army emblem on it had been replaced. The shining visage of the Valkyries' icon stared right back at her.

'As your commander in chief, I order you to assist the Soviet Armed Forces in their defence of Kamchatka, and to assist them in forward operations unless Japanese personnel's lives are threatened. Your TSFs will be delivered within a day, though the Soviet commanders have told us that there are surplus units available. I believe they are Su-37 Terminators. The decision is yours whether to accept them.'

'As you command, Your Highness. We shall carry out your bidding to the best of our ability!' Munakata saluted.

The Shogun shook her head lightly, still smiling.

'In truth, my friends,' she said, 'my bidding is hardly very significant.' She looked at Akane. 'Are you angry, Second Lieutenant Suzumiya? Are you angry at the Russians' treachery?'

Akane froze for a moment, her face heating up.

'Don't be afraid to speak your mind,' continued the Shogun, smiling. 'You are among friends.'

Eventually, she nodded resolutely. The Russians had no right to be taking Dr. Kouzuki prisoner. It was illegal, and ungrateful.

'Why are you fighting then?'

'To protect Japan,' Akane said. 'To live up to the example set by my comrades.'

'And the rest of you?'

They nodded assent. Just outside Akane's peripheral vision, a purple head remained still.

'Then I amend my orders,' the Shogun said. 'I order you to mingle with the Soviet personnel and to explore the town around this base on your free time. Know what you are protecting.

'I told this to one of your teammates before, though he may not have agreed with me. When a soldier says he is fighting to protect the country. He doesn't mean he is protecting the mountains, the streams, the fields. He is fighting for the people who inhabit the land. He is fighting for the country that lives in the hearts of the people. Without the people, there is no country. There is only soil. It is hollow, and soulless.'

The Shogun stood. 'So go forth, and find out what it is you are giving your life to protect. Find your reason for fighting, the fuel for the flame within you which will never be extinguished. Farewell.'

She stood and walked out of the room, leaving a solemn atmosphere in her wake.

'What the-' Akane was forced to clamp her mouth shut again as Tsukuyomi stomped back into the room and stood in front of them. She shrank slightly as the green-haired honored guard glared at her, but somehow managed to keep her expression straight.

'I am First Lieutenant Tsukuyomi of the Imperial Royal Guard,' she said curtly, just as Akane now remembered. This woman had been everywhere they went around Yokohama Base, tailing Mitsurugi through their training until one day she simply disappeared. After that happened Mitsurugi's capabilities and voice suddenly rose exponentially, but of course she wouldn't have remembered, having passed the CCSE about a term before Squad 207B.

'I am fully aware that I have no right to command you, or even ask for a salute from you members of an international army,' she said. 'However, you should know by now that the great powers would react unfavorably if the personal squad of their prisoner were to be seen to run amok in the base.' She bowed slightly. 'Therefore, it would be much appreciated if we could cooperate. I am in your care.'

What a day of firsts, Akane thought, bemused. First the Shogun comes to meet us. Then a member of the Imperial Royal Guard bows to us and asks for our cooperation. Something must have changed, she realized, comparing her to the stoic, strict and above all scary Tsukuyomi who had accompanied them around in Yokohama Base, and even struck Tamase across the face for touching the Takemikazuchi. This Tsukuyomi looked a little warmer, and even… a little older. Like the other Royal Guards, Tsukuyomi's eyes blazed with a fire one would be hard-pressed to find in a regular conscript like Maksim, or the guards in front of Yokohama Base. But while the fire had burned a white hot inferno before, now it seemed to have cooled slightly to a steady red glow, now a hearth that did not burn even those that were close out of free will.

'If that's all, then get some rest and report to the PX by 0700 tomorrow morning. We have been assigned to the 1st Squad, 3rd Armored Battalion 'Staryy'. Dismissed!'

Saluting, Akane and the others filed out.

Alone in her room, Suzumiya Akane browsed the book she had managed to sneak out of the library just before it closed. It had been clean and untouched compared to the others around it, and no wonder, for its spine bore a title written in English. 'Service Records of Tactical Surface Fighter Battalions Past and Present: UN Working Languages Edition 1999'

Japanese was not included yet, despite her own country having become a permanent member of the Security Council in 1987. But she was passably good at English, and one could potentially decipher Chinese characters due to their resemblance to kanji. Even better, if whoever had written the book had included a translation in Traditional Chinese, which was basically identical to kanji, since Japan had adapted from it. This would have to do. If anything, the joke was on the Soviet soldiers who hadn't remembered that Russian was one of the working languages of the UN. She giggled lightly, then realized it was a possibility that not enough of the soldiers here read Russian well anyway.

Akane flipped to the contents page, and saw a few familiar names instantly.*

103rd Tactical Fighter Squadron 'Jolly Rogers'. America.

44th Tactical Armor Battalion 'Zerberus'. West Germany.

666th Tactical Surface Fighter Squadron 'Schwarzesmarken'. East Germany. Now disbanded.

10th Tactical Armor Battalion 'K. und K.'. Austria.

17th Guards Tactical Armored Division 'Pyotr Velikiy'. Russia.

43rd Guards Tactical Armored Division 'Volk'. Russia.

8th Tactical Armor Battalion 'Fei Xing Jun'. Unified Front of China.

It took quite a long while of searching before the 3rd Armored Battalion 'Staryy' came into view. It seemed to be quite a new unit, and an anomaly among the Soviet TSF squadrons. As the book explained, Soviet TSF squadrons followed an unofficial hierarchy of honors: unnamed, tethered, 'guards' and named. All squadrons started out unnamed, with only a number to distinguish them. If they ever performed well enough to be deemed as representatives of their bases or districts, then they were given names that corresponded to their bases' locations. Akane noted with some surprise that the service records of the regiments designated 'Moskovsky' (of Moscow) and 'Leningradsky' (of Leningrad) continued on even up to the present day. It would seem that for places which had fallen under BETA control, being selected to join a battalion tethered to that place was tantamount to being placed in the force that would be destined to liberate that place, with the condition of course, that at least one veteran of the original 'Moskovsky' was still alive. With a little bemusement Akane noted as well the presence of 'Kievsky' (of Kiev) and 'Kalniningradsky' (of Kaliningrad). They weren't taking any precautions with their naming then.*

A step above being tethered, was being rewarded with real battle honors, the Order of the Red Banner (Krasnoznamyonniy), and the coveted title of 'Guards Division' (Gvardeyskiy)*. Unlike the previous accolades, which could be attained on the training ground or in defensive skirmishes, the 'Guards' and 'Red Banner' designations could only be attained in offensive operations against BETA hives. This made them extremely rare, and it was only fitting that the Volk Regiment had attained the Guards designation for their courage.

Finally, there were the 'named' units, which numbered in single digits. Names were bestowed upon the most prestigious TSF squadrons by the Ministry of Defense of the USSR, and either featured 'patriotic' names of their own choosing, or the names of famous figures in the history of the Russian sphere of influence. Apart from 'Pyotr Velikiy' (Peter the Great), there were also predictably, regiments named 'Vladimir Ily'ich Lenin' and 'Konstantin Rokossovsky', important political and military figures in nearer Soviet history. It was said that these names were granted because the regiments had stayed behind to cover the retreat of the USSR's military and civilian population, taking enormous casualties of almost 95% in the process. Many of them had been on the Eastern Defense Line from its conception somewhere in the Ural Mountains, and fought and died to defend it even as it was steadily pushed all the way back to where it now rested in the furthest reaches of Russia, and became instead the Far East Defense Line. The soil of the USSR was stained red as its flag with the blood of its heroes.

Therefore, Akane thought, cocking her head, it made little sense why the 3rd Armored Battalion would have been named, if it were formed so recently, in 1992. The name 'Staryy' too, as explained, meaning 'old' or 'ancient' in Russian, was a little ironic for such a junior TSF squad. It was not found in the list of 'named' regiments either, which was even more confusing. Named but not named? She kept reading, her eyes lingering for a moment on the little corner of the page devoted to displaying the unit's emblem. It was modest; a gold-bordered red star with gold wreaths on either side, and a golden '3' below the star. Above and below it Cyrillic script was emblazoned, incomprehensible to Akane and left unexplained, since it was an unofficial motto.

Commanding officers… Ekaterina Vladimirovna Petrova, decommissioned 1992… That was fast, she mused with a 'hmph' …Vladimir Nikolayevich Sukhov, 1993 to present. What a mouthful, Akane thought, trying to pronounce his name properly and nearly biting her tongue in the process. She leaned in closer to the picture of him that was included. For such a long name, it did not seem to fit him very well. 'Staryy's CO was not a big man, standing about five centimetres taller than Tsukuyomi by Akane's estimate, and possessing fairly nondescript features. Brown hair, clean shaven, and the standard stripes of a Captain on his shoulder. His eyes were green, but those were the only part of him that exuded any uniqueness whatsoever, staring straight into the camera with a quiet gleam that seemed rather different from the maniacal blaze in the preceding Captain Petrova's eyes.

Apart from that, all other information was classified.

What was I even expecting, Akane sighed, closing the book and putting it on the desk next to her bed. We're in Russia after all, reading about a Russian division.

One thing struck her though, as she looked up at the ceiling of her room, surprisingly as reassuringly boring and featureless as her old quarters in Yokohama Base. Whatever the 3rd Armored Battalion was, with all its classified details, it was rather distinctly ironic. A young squadron being named 'old', was precisely all the more strange for not being placed in the named section despite possessing one, and its leader seriously struggled physically to live up to his imposing name. Akane imagined the picture with Maksim's name underneath it instead, no surnames and middle names attached. Indeed, no difference. Russian conscript, Ukrainian conscript. All conscripts.

But it was precisely this walking hodge-podge of contradictions, that kept her awake for a little while longer that night, because pained as she was to admit it…

She was excited to meet the new squad.

AN: Sorry to disappoint if you were expecting a lot of action :p Look forward to more new characters being introduced in the next scene as A-01 meets 3rd Armored Battalion 'Staryy'! Massive information spam below...

Index

1) Translations of non-English TSF Squadron names (Apart from Schwarzes, Volk and Zerberus, I made up all the rest in the chapter)

- Zerberus: Corresponds to the mythical hound Cerberus who guards the Underworld in Greek mythology

- Schwarzesmarken: Black Marks. The name is grammatically incorrect in German but is explained away canonically by saying a Soviet officer named them. The name references the colors used by medics to distinguish severity of cases, with black meaning casualties beyond all help.

- K. und K.: Short for 'Kaiserliche und Königliche', or 'Imperial and Royal', a common prefix for infantry regiments in the Austrian Empire.

- Pyotr Velikiy: Peter the Great in Russian. Although using his name may seem weird for the Soviets, Tsar Peter is widely regarded as the most popular Russian historical figure in Russia itself.

- Vladimir Ily'ich Lenin: The leader of the Bolshevik Party in the 1917 October Revolution that would establish the USSR. Even today in our world he is regarded as a founding father of Communist ideology, alongside Karl Marx. It is quite evident why his name would be illustrious enough to be used as a decoration for an exemplary TSF squadron.

- Konstantin Rokossovsky: Marshal Rokossovsky was one of the most distinguished Soviet commanders of World War II, the other being Marshal Georgy Zhukov. I selected this name simply because it sounded more imposing. He began the war as a disgraced ex-prisoner due to Stalin's purges, but rose to become one of the nine Marshals of the Soviet Union who earned their ranks during World War II. He is remembered most prominently for planning Operation Bagration in 1944, which liberated the entirety of Belarus from Nazi occupation and almost completely destroyed Army Group Centre, placing the Soviet Army within striking distance of Berlin.

- Volk: 'People' in German. It is unclear why a Russian squadron would bear this name.

- Fei Xing Jun: 飞行军, a close equivalent to 'Airborne Soldiers' in Chinese, though not in the paratrooper sense. 'Army that travels as if by flight' is more accurate. Used commonly as an accolade for armies who are so hardy that natural obstacles are easily overcome and the army 'flies' across the landscape. The number '8' is also significant, representing the August 1 1927 Nanchang Uprising of the Communists against the KMT in China, and is the anniversary of the Chinese PLA's founding. Additionally, the main Chinese Communist army in World War II was known as the 8th Route Army.

- Staryy: 'Old' or 'Ancient' in Russian. Its meaning and significance will be revealed later.

2) Military decorations in the vein of the Orders described here exist in real life. The Red Banner and Guards designations are the most often awarded for military accomplishments, though there also exist an Order of Lenin, Order of the Red Star, and Order of the October Revolution. Different decorations may exist in modern Russia which continue from the Imperial era.

3) The Caution/Intention of the Russians: Both Kiev and Kaliningrad are places that are outside of Russia proper. Kiev is the capital of Ukraine in the real world, while Kaliningrad actually used to be called Königsberg, until World War II when the city's German population was expelled and replaced with Soviet settlers. It was renamed Kaliningrad after Mikhail Kalinin, one of the original Bolsheviks from 1917, and remains a Russian territory to this day in our world.